Hi all,Having just bought the B1900 and being pleased with it, I start wondering how real B1900 pilots, or pilots in any other plane without FMC, navigate across airways. In FS you can always "cheat" by using something like FSNav ofcourse.I know how to work with VORs and stuff, but how to fly from one intersection to the other? Or don't flightplans for B1900s contain any airways and are they made up of just DCTs from VOR to VOR? Thanks!Robert-Jan OosterlooESA1121

I'm not an expert on this, but as far as I can see, most airways are actually connections between VORs. For example, V495 connects the SEA (Seattle) and PDX (Portland) VOR. Intersections are just that, intersections between two VOR radials, or a combination of one VOR radial and a DME distance. All the necessary information is contained on the IFR enroute charts.When I fly the B1900 outside the coverage of my IFR low enroute charts, I let FS9 create a VOR-to-VOR flight plan.Just my 2c (EUR),VOlker :]

The old fashoned way.. Make a flightplan in advance (usually a prewritten one), fly station to station, and by direction of ATC. Davehttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/1900driver.jpg

One question: I have the JetLine2 (like you, Volker). I also usually navigate using victor airways. And I understand airways and intersections are created by either intesecting VORs and/or defined by DME distances.One thing would be neat though: To use two vor radios and two OBS'es simultaneously, in order to dial in the radial of an upcoming second VOR in the flightplan so that I can seamlessly switch between two VORs (without having to use HDG as a temporary aid). Is that possible with the JL2 EFIS? I oly found the OBS for VOR1, not VOR2...I am no expert and hope to have made myself clear on this.... any comments?

Oops... forgot this:Best,Patrick Roeder:-)(per forum guidelines)

If you have the plan loaded in the flightplanner(gps) then just switch you nav source to gps and it'll fly like most FMS. This isn't to far out to use this on the B1900 as I believe they are often equipped with a KLN90 GPS receiver or similar.If you are navigating with radio navaids you will always have to use heading or control heading by hand, when you get closer than 1-2 nm of the radio beacon as the readings from the radio navaid becomes errattic and will dissappear when you overfly it. If my nav 1 receiver has a RMI I follow that the last 5 nm (if no RMI I use nav 2 instead) and I adjust the CDI for the out bound course, so it's ready when I overfly the transmitter.At least this my experince and the way I normally do it.Peter Brinch

Hi Volker,Just checked some enroute charts and you seem to be right. I guess that's the way pilots naviate in the real world. Hmm, a lot more work when flying like this instead of the comfortable FMC :-)Thanks!Robert-Jan Oosterloo

But is in the real B1900 the gps also coupled to the autopilot or do the pilots just use it as an aid? And to tell you the truth, I don't understand a thing of the GPS :-).Robert-Jan Oosterloo

Robert, I think navigating the B1900 along airways is not as hard as it first seems. With a cruise speed of about 240 kts, there is enough time to dial in the right frequencies and headings for the next leg while flying in HDG mode (simulating the missing FO ;)).VOlker :]

> use two vor radios and two OBS'es simultaneouslyI don't think that's possible in the JL2, because you have only one CDI. You'd need two CDIs to display the deviation for both VOR radials, and I guess that would be quite confusing ;)VOlker :]

I'm pretty sure the GPS are coupled on some models. But mayby someone with more specific knowlegde will confirm and elaborate.Whether the GPS is used to "fly the plane" is another question. I guess it depends on the route and the pilots.I don't like using the GPS, I like to fly the plane, if I "couple" the GPS, I'm out of work untill the approach starts - boring!!. It's even normal I don't use the autopilot, I feel my handling of the plane is alot better if I "handfly" the hole trip. (I rarely fly for longer than an hour anyway) Even though I don't use any automation, I set it up, program the GPS, autopilot and radios. Because I handfly alot I have replaced the radio receivers with a more realistic version with a memory which can hold several frequencies. This means I tune all the frequencies before takeof, so I can just flip on to the next frequency with two mouse clicks.Peter B.